26 Grant St, PO Box 199, GOORNONG, VIC, 3557

Tel: 5432 2236 Email: goornong.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

Website: www.goornongps.vic.edu.au

Our school values—teamwork, respect, honesty and care.

Weekly Awards

Congratulations to our award winners. Dates to Remember

Term Four

Mon 2nd Nov Bike Ed (Gr 3-6s) 12.30—1.30

Fri 6th Nov MARC Book Week Dress Up Day

Mon 9th Nov Bike Ed (Gr 3-6s) 12.30—1.30

Thurs 12th Nov Little Learners Session One

Fri 13th Nov School Photos

MARC Library

Mon 16th Nov Bike Ed (Gr 3-6s) 12.30—1.30

School Council Meeting

Thurs 19th Nov Little Learners Session Two

Wed 18th Nov Cluster Summer Sports, Gr 3-6.

Fri 20th Nov Student-Free Day

Thurs 26th Nov Little Learners Session Three

Grade Prep-Two Sleepover at School

Fri 27th Nov MARC Library

Tues 8th Dec State-wide Orientation (Step-Up) Day

Fri 11th Dec MARC Library

Fri 18th Dec Last day of Term 4, 2.15pm dismissal

2021 Term Dates

Term One Thurs 28th Jan—Thurs 1st April

Term Two Mon 19th April—Fri 25th June

Term Three Mon 12th July—Fri 17th Sept

Term Four Mon 4th Oct—Fri 17th Dec

Friday 30th October 2020

Issue 18

BOOK WEEK 2020 Our Book Week dress-up day is

Friday 6th November On this day students are encouraged to dress up in a

costume related to this year’s theme—

Curious Creatures, Wild Minds. We will be doing a parade along the new footpath on

Grant and Landon Streets at 9am. Thus, we encour-

age parents to park their cars along these streets to

watch as we go past (please see Principal’s Report

for more details on this).

Award This Week Last Week

P-2 Literacy

Alexia W Brock K

P-2 Maths

Lola A Olivia M

P-2 Values

Marli O Emilie J

3-6 Literacy

Mitch W & Indi A Amelia H

3-6 Maths

Ted C & Max A Max A

3-6 Values

Wade N Savannah M

Principal Award

Audrey A & Bailey A

Ted C

BOOK WEEK DRESS UP DAY

Our Book Week Dress Up Day is just one week away and

it has been great to hear the excitement building

amongst the students as they look forward to donning

their Book Week Costumes.

In usual circumstances, we would be looking forward to

welcoming parents and special friends into the school for

our Book Week Parade. However, due to Covid-19 re-

strictions, we are unable to do this.

Therefor, as a staff we have come up with a modified

plan to involve parents in Book Week this year.

The students will be parading along the new footpath

along Grant and Langdon Streets at 9am. We invite par-

ents to park their cars along these streets to watch as we

walk past. For this plan to be successful, we are asking for

parent cooperation to ensure Covid-19 guidelines are

met. This includes:

Parents staying in their cars; or, if hopping out, stand-

ing at the bonnet of their car.

Parents staying at least 1.5m from the new footpath.

Parents avoiding gathering in groups.

Parents maintaining at least 1.5m from the school

group during the parade.

Parents that are not inside a vehicle to be wearing a

mask.

We will reserve an area near the front entrance for

parents who walk with their child to school to stand.

We appreciate the support of parents and our school

community in respecting the above arrangements, as this

ensures that we are able to offer this opportunity to our

students and families.

DRINK BOTTLES

We have a number of students who are coming to school

without a drink bottle. We remind parents (and students)

that a drink bottle full of water should be brought to

school every day. This is particularly important at present

given the bubble taps are currently out of order due to

Covid-19 restrictions.

SCHOOL REVIEW

After a couple of false starts due to coronavirus our

school review has finally got underway and this week we

welcomed our reviewer, senior education improvement

leader and challenge partners into our school. This

‘Review Team’ has spent time working with the school

Principal’s Report staff on identifying the successes and achievements of

our school over the past four years; and identifying the

next steps which will guide the development of our

School Strategic Plan for the coming four years. The Re-

view Team has also spent time talking with students and

parents to find out more about our school. Following the

conclusion of the review next week, a report and presen-

tation will be made to our school council and the devel-

opment of our 2021-2024 Strategic Plan will commence.

I look forward to updating our community on the out-

comes of the Review later in the year.

As was outlined in the newsletter earlier this year, all

Government schools go through a school review process

every four years to evaluate how effective they have

been in achieving the goals set out in their Strategic Plan;

and to develop goals for the coming four years.

GRADE PREP-TWO SLEEPOVER

Both Miss Mac and I are excited to announce that later

this year we will be running a Grade Prep-Two Sleepover

at school. This will be held on the evening of Thursday

26th November. On this evening Grade One-Two stu-

dents will be invited to sleepover at school, while Grade

Prep students would head home after participating in

some activities at school. More information will come in

the next edition of the newsletter, but a plan for the

night would be something like below:

Thursday 26th November

Attend school as per normal during the day and go home

at 3.15pm.

5.00pm Grade P/1/2 students come back to school.

Games and activities at school.

6.00pm Dinner at school.

6.30pm More games and activities at school.

8.00pm Grade Prep students go home.

Grade 1/2s watch a movie at school

9.00pm Grade 1/2s bedtime.

Friday 27th November

7.00am Wake up, breakfast and more activities at

school.

9.00am School day begins. All students welcome to

attend school on the Friday. However, par

ents may wish to collect their child in the

morning and take them home.

(continued over page).

SCHOOL PHOTOS

We are pleased to announce that school photos will be

going ahead in 2020. Our school photo day is Friday 13th

November.

This year, school council has decided to make an alterna-

tive arrangement for our school photos. In recognition of

the challenging year that many have faced, there will be

no cost to families for this year’s photos, as school coun-

cil will be covering the cost. The photos will be taken by

Felicity Johnson, who is a staff member of our school and

also an amateur photographer. Many in our community

would be familiar with the quality of Felicity’s photog-

raphy.

Instead of ordering photo packs like usual, each family

will be provided with a USB stick containing a class photo,

two individual student portraits and a family portrait

(siblings only). Families will then be able to print these

photos at a photo kiosk in the quantity and size they

wish.

School photo day is always a very special day in our cal-

endar, with the photos taken on the day providing fami-

lies with memories that can be passed on to future gen-

erations. In the past, our families have been very good at

ensuring that students attend school in correct school

uniform on photo day. Again, we ask for the support of

parents with this to ensure that our photos are of the

highest quality. In particular, I draw parents attention to

the following points in our uniform policy:

Stud earrings and sleepers worn in the ears, plus

watches are the only acceptable jewellery.

Other than clear nail polish, cosmetics may not be

worn at school.

The wearing of visible under-garments such as colour-

ful long-sleeve shirts under a short-sleeve shirt or leg-

gings/tights under shorts, skirts or dresses is not per-

mitted, with the exception of those in the colours navy

blue or maroon.

Extreme hair colours (eg: green, pink or purple rinses)

and/or extreme hairstyles are not permitted.

Shoulder length hair or longer needs to be tied back.

SCHOOL COUNCIL

Our final school council meeting for 2020 will be held on

Monday 16th November 7.00pm. Finance Committee will

meet at 6.30pm. As has been the case previously, this

meeting will be held remotely via WebEx videoconferenc-

ing.

Principal’s Report Continued

PARENT OPINION SURVEY

Thank you to those parents who have already taken the

time to complete the Parent Opinion Survey. This year

the survey is being conducted online. A notification has

been sent to each family via UEducateUs which includes

the survey link and unique survey login code.

Each year our school conducts a survey of families as one

of multiple sources of feedback that our school uses to

direct future planning and school improvement.

Please feel free to contact me at the school if you have

any trouble accessing or completing the survey.

2021 SCHOOL YEAR

We have begun planning for the 2021 school year. As I’m

sure you can appreciate, there is a great deal of work

behind the scenes to ensure the best structure in rela-

tion to classrooms, teachers and support staff. The num-

ber of students attending the school has a significant

impact on our planning as school funding is directly

linked to the number of enrolments. As such, I ask that

those parents intending to enrol new students at Goor-

nong PS in 2021 (including Preps) please now return

their enrolment form. Enrolment forms are available

from the school should you require one. I also ask that

parents please contact me if they are not intending to

send their child to Goornong PS in 2021. I thank families

for their support with this.

Jason Cox

Principal

GRADE PREP-TWO

*Zzzzzzz* “Wake up!” Apart from lots of students (and

maybe staff) feeling fairly tired the last couple of weeks,

the students have returned this term with a positive

attitude towards each other and their learning.

During Literacy, we have been looking at summarising

(giving a short sequenced recount of the main ideas in

our own words). We have also looked at characters,

settings, problems, events and solutions which has tied

in nicely with our writing unit on personal narratives. It

has been entertaining to hear all the students brain-

storm some very interesting events in their life. We

have used these to create our story plans and are excit-

ed to start writing our stories next week. Each student

has also got a new reading and writing goal focusing on

the next step in their learning. Students have collabo-

rated with Ms Mac to create these goals and have been

working hard to bump up their skills.

In Maths, we have been focusing on division. We have

talked about the connection between division and mul-

tiplication and different strategies we can use. Preps

have enjoyed sharing objects between groups equally

and Grade 1/2 have used objects, pictures and arrays to

solve division sums.

Over the next fortnight we will finish our personal nar-

ratives. Then, students will write a persuasive piece of

writing trying to convince their audience about some-

thing they would like in their home towns. In Maths,

students will continue to work on division (sharing) and

start looking at multiplication (groups of).

In STEM, Mr Tooley and students were very excited to

go on an zoo excursion in the yard and then write about

their experience.

In ICT, Mrs Patton has had the students practise finding

letters quickly on the keyboard and spelling out their

spelling words or sight words.

Eddie, Lexi, Emilie, Lola, Mary, Marli and Mrs Patton in ICT.

GRADE THREE-SIX

In Reading, the students have been learning about ‘Point of View’ (POV). Who is telling the story? The stu-dents have focused on devel-oping their understanding of first, second and third person point of view and how telling the story from different perspectives can change how we feel about characters, the setting, and the plot! The students have used images to practise this concept by telling a story about the image from both first and third person POV! All students have been working hard in class during independent reading times to master their reading goal. I highly recom-mend that grade 3-6 students spend 10mins each night reading at home too, to strengthen their reading stamina, skills and independence. Even if they are reading to themselves before bed!

In Writing, the students have begun to plan their au-tobiography! They have learnt about the differences and similarities of a biography and an autobiography, and have enjoyed reading an amazing selection of texts chosen by Mrs G to understand the genre bet-ter! The students are moving through the writing pro-cess. After their ‘Prewrite’ they will then move into writing the ‘Draft’. Many thanks to those who helped their child plan for this writing piece!

In Maths, the Grade Three-Fours have begun a new unit on ‘Time’. The students have completed a pre-test and are now working through reading an analogue clock and transferring the analogue time to digital too. This week, we have practised lots of quarter past and quar-ter to times, and are working towards reading the time to the minute.

In Maths the Grade Five-Sixes have been practicing mental and written strategies for multiplication. The students have looked at multiplication in terms of ar-rays with equal rows and columns; and as the area of a square or rectangle. The students have also learnt about partitioning as a strategy to solve multiplication and have learnt how to set this strategy up in a grid.

Community News

What are the Child Safe Standards?

The Betrayal of Trust report released by the Victorian

Government identified that more can be done in the

community to reduce and remove the risk of child

abuse. As such, Ministerial Order 870 outlines a set of

requirements (Child Safe Standards) that Victorian

schools need to meet.

The Child Safe Standards are a set of principles that

require organisations working with children to imple-

ment strategies to prevent child abuse.

There are seven Child Safe Standards, plus a Principle

of Inclusion.

Our Commitment to Child Safety

Goornong Primary School is committed to the safety

and wellbeing of all children and young people. This will

be the primary focus of our care and decision-making.

Goornong Primary School has zero tolerance for child

abuse.

We are committed to providing a child safe environment

where children and young people are safe and feel

safe, and their voices are heard about decisions that

affect their lives. Particular attention will be paid to the

cultural safety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

children and children from culturally and/or linguistically

diverse backgrounds, as well as the safety of children

with a disability and children who are vulnerable.

Every person involved in Goornong Primary School has

a responsibility to understand the important and specific

role they play individually and collectively to ensure that

the wellbeing and safety of all children and young peo-

ple is at the forefront of all they do and every decision

they make.

Goornong Primary School has in place the following

policies and documents which outline approaches to

remove and/or reduce the risks of child abuse; and

our commitment to providing a child-safe environment.

Child Safety Policy.

Child Safe Code of Conduct.

Staff Selection, Supervision & Management Policy.

Child Safe Reporting Obligations Policy.

Risk Management Strategies for a Child Safe Envi-

ronment.

A copy of all of these policies and further information

regarding the Child Safe Standards is available on our

school’s website.

AFL Central Victoria Junior/Youth Academy – Netball Program

Nomination Form

Nominations are now being sought for the AFL Central Victoria Netball

Academy. Nominate for trials by completing the form on the following

link: https://forms.gle/rYuAwQbhao5DQyB88

Nominations close on 13th November 2021.

In 2021, we will be running the following programs:

• A specialist program for 14-year-old players in shooting, centre court

or defence. Players select their specialty area with sessions conducted

concurrently

• 13-year-old program

• 12-year-old program

Ages are taken at 31st December 2021:

• Players turning 14 in 2021 (DOB 2007) will be considered for the 14-

Year-Old Program

• Players turning 13 in 2021 (DOB 2008) will be considered for the 13-

Year-Old Program

• Players turning 12 in 2021 (DOB 2009) will be considered for the 12-

Year-Old Program

Trial Information

We will confirm trials at a later stage using the email address provided in

the nomination process. Depending on COVID-19 restrictions they will

either be early December 2020 or February 2021.

It is recommended that players attend a minimum of two trials.

Please email Carol Cathcart, carol.cathcart@aflcentralvic.com.au, if you

have any further questions.

COVID-19 MANAGEMENT AT SCHOOL

Given the recent spike in coronavirus cases Victoria,

it is timely to remind parents of the following important

points regarding how any potential Covid-19 cases

would be managed in the school context.

The Department of Education and Training (DET) has

comprehensive procedures in place with the Depart-

ment of Health and Human Services to manage sus-

pected or confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19)

in schools.

The school will contact the Department of Health and

Human Services and notify the DET central office to

activate the established procedures if a student or

staff member:

– is a confirmed case.

– has been in close contact with a confirmed case.

DHHS defines ‘close contact’ as someone who has

either:

had at least 15 minutes of face-to-face contact

with a confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19).

shared a closed space for more than two hours

with someone who is a confirmed case.

Anyone who is, or who has come into contact with, a

confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) is required

to self-quarantine for a period of 14 days.

All unwell staff and students must stay home.

Staff or students experiencing compatible symptoms

with coronavirus (COVID-19) (fever, cough or sore

throat) whilst at school will be isolated in an appropri-

ate space with suitable supervision and their parent/

carer contacted to come and collect them as soon as

possible.

STUDENT ILLNESS

A reminder that unwell students must not attend

school, regardless of whether their symptoms are

compatible with Covid-19 or not. Students who are

unwell must not return to school until their symp-

toms have ceased. If students begin to feel ill whilst

at school we will contact their parents and ask that

the child be collected as soon as possible. We con-

tinue to encourage parents to seek the advice of

their medical practitioner should their child display

any symptoms compatible with Covid-19.

We draw parents’ attention to the Australian Gov-

ernment Health Department website which has the

following information regarding Covid-19 symptoms:

We thank everyone in our school community for

their vigilance and support in helping to keep our

students and staff safe and healthy. It continues to

be important that our community remains attentive

to this.

Symptoms of COVID-19 can range from mild ill-

ness to pneumonia. Some people will recover easi-

ly, and others may get very sick very quickly. Peo-

ple with coronavirus may experience symptoms

such as:

Fever

respiratory symptoms such as coughing, sore

throat and/or shortness of breath.

Other symptoms can include runny nose, head-

ache, muscle or joint pains, nausea, diarrhoea,

vomiting, loss of sense of smell, altered sense of

taste, loss of appetite and fatigue.

To stop the spread of COVID-19 people with even

mild symptoms of respiratory infection should get

tested.

Source: www.health.gov.au

IMPORTANT COVID-19 INFORMATION

WHEN IS MY CHILD OK TO COME TO SCHOOL?

The circumstances where students are not to attend school are when:

1) They are a confirmed Covid-19 case.

2) They are a close contact of a confirmed case.

3) They have been directed to self-isolate by DHHS.

4) They are unwell.

If your children fits into any of the categories above, they should not attend school. Otherwise, they would be right to come.